December 01, 2011
Comfy
I hate starting a new exercise video because muscles that haven’t been
used in a particular discipline rebel very quickly…and they hold a grudge.
Following along as best I could with a new series, the instructor encouraged me
by saying that I need to learn to ‘be comfortable in the uncomfortable’. What a
great thought for me as a believer. Spiritually speaking I often ask the Lord
to protect me from evil, to help me run away from sinful situations and keep my
mind heaven focused, but it has never occurred to me to ask that He keep me comfortable
in the uncomfortable.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Sometimes I get dismayed at the Christian treatment of the concept of comfort. I often hear it portrayed as a state of spiritual deterioration. And it can be. But it is not necessarily. It can also be a state of spiritual strength. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (II Cor 1:3-7) My, my! There’s a lot of comfort going on there! “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” (II Thes 2:16-17) And it seems like God plans comfort to last for a while. I think I’ve heard enough preaching about getting out of our comfort zones.
-----But I will hear much preaching about getting into the right comfort zones. It is important for us to be in comfort zones, those zones of spiritual strength, that is. There are many of them. But God does not just bring them over us all. Nor does He just float us into them. They are attitudes. And attitudes are like your workouts, they take dedication, hard work, and (eh-hmmm) leaving previously enjoyed comfort zones.
-----I have been vexed by something I heard on the radio a few months ago. It was one of those sixty second medical-moments. There is a small section of the lower brain, it said, which functions specifically against change. What’s up with this? I thought change was good, you know, getting out of the comfort zone and all? So God builds our bodies to fight it? Well, if you think about it, with no backpressure given to new and different thoughts and feelings our mental states would run wild without purpose or continuity. No personality or character would form, no intelligence or meaning. Everything would be a random storm of mental activity, shifting from one topic to another exuding first one emotion then another, and all in seconds, not moments. Talk about a spinning head! Fortunately the brain itself has a built in regulator of change so that the mind can experience enough continuity to form meaning and understanding.
-----That continuity is first cousin to comfort. If our minds were working perfectly, there would be little need for change. But they don’t so much. So there is. And that getting out of your comfort zone our dear preachers love to pipe is really for the getting into a better one, I wish they would say. And of course, our own biological hardware makes the software upgrade difficult.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment